I get the sense that this isn’t just some line he uses, that he’s speaking from his soul.
And I'm loving the sound of him making mehis.
It calls to me on a primal level. Even though he's the biggest, scariest-looking man I've ever seen, I also somehow feel completely safe in his presence—like nothing could ever hurt me.
When I don't speak, he runs a hand through his hair, a look of regret and self-loathing on his face.
“Fuck, I've just scared the shit out of you.”
Frustration pours off him. He looks like he wishes he could beat himself up.
I instinctively want to soothe him. I lay a hand on his big arm, my fingers trembling atop his muscles.
He instantly stills, his eyes flicking up to mine and his chest heaving up and down at my touch. His nostrils flare, but I keep my hand on his arm. I feel like I’m calming a big beast. It both humbles me and empowers me at the same time. Seeing what I do to him almost makes me dizzy.
“You haven’t scared me.” I shake my head. “It’s just…no one has ever said these things to me before.”
He visibly relaxes before he covers my hand with his own. “Let me get to know you.” His voice is gruff, and it scrapes over me like sandpaper. “We can go as slow as you want. I just want to spend some time with you, get to know you.”
He fingers my hair again, a look of wonder in his eyes. “You're the most beautiful little thing I've ever seen,” he murmurs.
My heart races again. He's looking at me like I'm the most precious thing he's ever seen. No one has ever looked at me this way before.
As the senator's daughter, I haven’t dated much. I’ve always been so cautious. I’ve always had to be careful of who I'm seeing with so it doesn't look bad on my father or his career. I've never dated anyone who wasn't vetted and approved by him. My whole life has been planned out around my dad's career.
I’ve been complacent. I've never done anything just for me in all of my twenty-one years.
As Rocky's eyes bore down into mine, I realize that I'm tired of living that way. I want to do something for me.
I want Rocky. He’s going to be that something just for me.
I’m tired of only dating the guys my dad sets me up with because their connections will further his career. I want to be with someone who wants me just formeand not what a connection with my father can do for them.
Rocky doesn’t have a clue who I am. That much is obvious.
And that's why I'm not going to tell him my last name. I don't want to ruin this before it ever even begins.
My pulse races as I do the first thing I’ve ever done just for myself. “I want to get to know you, too.”
Two
Rocky
I'm over the moon. I thought for sure I had fucked things up when I came on too strong with Holly last night, but that wasn't the case.
Amazingly enough, absolute angel that she is, she said she wanted to get to know me too.
I couldn't believe it. We slid into a private booth at the back of the bar and got to know one another all night.
All we did was talk, and she let me hold her hand and touch her curls, blushing every time I touched her. Fuck, I love the way her cheeks heated under my gaze, and maybe I shouldn't have stared at her so much, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.
She’s the most perfect thing I've ever seen, and after speaking with her, I'm convinced she's the most perfect woman in the world—period.
She's twenty-one and has already gotten a degree in art in college. She likes to paint, though she never told me that's actually what she does for a living.
In fact, she never really confirmed to me what she does or her last name. Any time I asked questions like that, she changed the subject, and I let her because maybe she has a bit of a past she's ashamed of. Hell, who doesn't? Although I can’t imagine this angel ever doing anything to be ashamed of, I don't care. I don't care who she was before now. I don't care if she's a criminal on the run.
I'll take care of her. I'll protect her. All that matters now is that she'smine.